USA Organizing Skullgirls' Event Calendar 2016-2017

[skull person]

The medals that were handed out to top 8 at CB were good.

It just says CB finalist or something.
Everyone got one and first place got the trophy.

We can just do something like 5 grey medals, 3 more for bronze, silver, gold with the Skullgirls / LZ / Autumn Games event logo on it should be fine.

Don't have to mix it up, we can just keep doing that for each of the selected events for the year + maybe the events title.

I think getting anymore complicated than that is money that would be better spent elsewhere like getting more players.

There will already most likely be medals / trophies / collectables for winning at each of these tournaments already, on top of the ones for Skullgirls specifically.

 

[clawmaster]

I think the logo should be very explicit. "Labzero games/autumn games featured tournament" would do the job. If we want to go the community route, I'll throw in my suggestion:
* SKULLGIRLS *
community's choice
TOURNAMENT

I have plenty of free time this week and could make the logo (though if lab zero and autumn want to get involved, I imagine they'd want more time and to make their own logo).

I think it should be kept to the community. I am sure Lab Zero will have no problems supporting the scene, but I think for this entire thread, and the direction its headed, this is all decided by the community at large on this idea. Not to take anything away from Lab Zero, and their contribution to this idea

 

[Ninja]

Regarding a prize or trophy, how about a 3d printed Skullheart? Or something off a 3d printer, would probably be the easiest and cheapest way to make something cool.

I still like the idea for Pins. Something that's cheep and collectible [Oh and EVERYONE can get one, to make them feel like they were there and part of the community.] It could also tie into the whole idea of Prizes helping out the winners go to the next major SG Tourney, or say Combo Breaker.

 

[clawmaster]

I still like the idea for Pins. Something that's cheep and collectible [Oh and EVERYONE can get one, to make them feel like they were there and part of the community.] It could also tie into the whole idea of Prizes helping out the winners go to the next major SG Tourney, or say Combo Breaker.

If any indication to this, look at the PAX conventions the pins they give out to fans to collect. People are going nuts for the penny arcade pins at pax. will it pick up in the FGC for Skullgirls? Maybe.

 

[Mike_Z]

- If an event fails to live up to the minimum that was asked of it, it gets dropped depending on community consideration, e.g. "Stream time was cut to Top4 because of a fire alarm" is different from "Stream time was cut to Top4 because Marvel ran super long and got priority".

- Before making any kind of logos or whatnot, the first step is to TALK TO THE TOURNAMENTS! I mean we know CB is good for it, and GUTS, and CEOtaku, but let's talk to the organizers of Revolution and ... something in Japan, to at least get the list final as a FIRST step. The initial thing is to make sure they're amenable to the terms.
(Also, pleeaaaaaaaase leave logo and other mockups to artists? That stuff isn't necessary to have until the rest of the decisions are already made AND arrangements are in place, and having giant images makes the thread harder to read, etc.)

- Making any kind of prizes is expensive, period. I just want people to realize that. The more you order the cheaper each individual piece is, but if you're thinking to get enough medals to cover a bunch of different tournaments for less than like $500, nope. And even that might be low. Doing pins or something that EightySixed is able to produce might be able to help alleviate the cost, but they don't appear for free.

- I'm fine with Autumn or LZ not being involved directly, but you gotta admit that would add lots more clout. It would also spur 'the community' to finalize decisions instead of letting something languish, as has happened previously to some efforts I've seen...

- Again, the first step is to decide on ALL the tournaments we're including. Period.

- To me, "Tour" still sounds like "some group is going to a bunch of places". I think Skullheart Approved, or the an event being part of the Skullgirls Hype Train Series, or something, works better, but that's completely my opinion.

Spoiler: Tangentially related to the discussion

....and now, I get to point out that most of these ideas and approaches - the analysis of branding, etc. - are the same things that were, or have been previously, said by Kai. (^.^) But that people were a lot more receptive of them when they were presented by someone else. I don't want to start a whole other thing, so please do NOT take this as an open invitation for discussion of that and especially NOT in this thread, but I'm certain I don't think that situation is fair. The impteus and the quality of the idea are separate things from the presenter. As a community, we can't forget that either!

 

[Kai]

Some people here and at LZ suggested edits to the concept logo, so I went back this morning and made some changes to hopefully improve it's visibility on any promotional material that it may inevitably be included on. The Skullgirls logo is more prominent, Cerebella is less obscured, a color mirror border was added, and the overall image size is increased.

Spoiler

 

[Waasiq]

Medals seems weird when events want to (and probably should) give out their own medals, which is why I figured maybe it should be a least a little different. Maybe we can work with the TOs who plan on giving medals to have specific ones for Skullgirls?

Something unique and cool looking, even if its a pin or a specific medal or whatever, is something you can put on Twitter/SRK as "The winners of x tourney gets this." as to give weight to the entire tour as more than just a list of suggested tourneys to go to. I think there are relatively cheap options we could explore, like art prints or pins like people have been suggesting. That said, I definitely agree that making sure things like flights to CB are paid for is more important than prizes, it's easily the best idea for where community effort should go.


For Brazil, if a local tourney is not feasible, could Brazil SG run some kind of Brazil only online qualifier?

 

[Pickles]

"Series" is a good word. I'm personally not a fan of "hype train" as I think its a little overused but Skullgirls Community Series maybe? idk

(Also, pleeaaaaaaaase leave logo and other mockups to artists? That stuff isn't necessary to have until the rest of the decisions are already made AND arrangements are in place, and having giant images makes the thread harder to read, etc.)

Making any kind of prizes is expensive, period.

QFT

I think having medals/trophies/whatever isn't necessary. Like Liam said, you already get medals at most tournaments for placing well, I don't think we need special Skullheart medals or whatever on top of that. The point of this, to me, isn't to reward players for doing well (the tournament already does that), it is to foster growth by giving the community events to focus on attending as well as giving TOs an incentive of sorts ("if you get on this list then we will make sure every skullgirls player knows your event is worth going to").

 

[Ninja]

- Before making any kind of logos or whatnot, the first step is to TALK TO THE TOURNAMENTS! I mean we know CB is good for it, and GUTS, and CEOtaku, but let's talk to the organizers of Revolution and ... something in Japan, to at least get the list final as a FIRST step. The initial thing is to make sure they're amenable to the terms.
(Also, pleeaaaaaaaase leave logo and other mockups to artists? That stuff isn't necessary to have until the rest of the decisions are already made AND arrangements are in place, and having giant images makes the thread harder to read, etc.)

oh thank you Mike. I was getting a little stressed over the need to get a logo out before Wednesday.

 

[thehadou]

Food for thought: Logos, branding, prizing - these are the last things you should be focused on. Infrastructure, partnerships, coverage arrangements, control/management staff, promotional campaign vehicles and objectives - these are all things to do first.

If you do this right its going to cost time & money at any level. Even if you do it wrong it'll cost a lot of time. If you do it with Lab Zero & Autumn you'll need to surrender some control (but gain a lot of promotional power). I'm not sure who makes that call.

Which leads us to a crucial item (& one I hate to say in a community discussion thread) but pre-project step 1 is identifying who the project workers & oversight staff are. Otherwise this is a lot of daydreaming in the bleachers and future conflict waiting to happen.

 

[Zidiane]

... so I guess we do need people in charge? We can't just put out open letters and have it turn out fine? I really wanted it to be like that. I like the thought of the community collectively saying a thing and having people listening.

I volunteer myself for a/the position of tour/launch party management. Here's my plan so far, assuming no one would be upset with my taking this upon myself. If you do have a problem with it... well, there's a plan here anyway. I'll probably look to be doing some of these things anyway.

Before CEOtaku Goals:

Spoiler

-Partner with KPB: This isn't confirmed, but KPB is incredibly supportive of us. I'm on the team, and they've expressed keen intent on assisting the community. Between KPB members, we have organizers directly working with over half of the events on the US list. We of course as the SGC are friends with Rick and Jamie already, but more allies and organization in those places ensure a smoother experience all around.

-Establish a connection with TO's: Contact each TO (starting with Jebailey) and express our collective interests. Provide them a similar letter to the one Mike posted earlier, stating our intentions and expectations for our efforts. Would bring on other members of the community with connections to other TO's not on the list to build relations for next year.

-Start up a consistent rotation of Skullgirls Video Content: I've been working with several content creators to make this happen already. I'll be looking to gather more. Something similar to the CPT videos that are dropped after events, with things like player interviews, Hype Highlights, analysis, etc. Content between tournaments should be consistent, to keep up visibility between events. Would look into dubbing a channel an official SG Series channel to produce "official" videos from.

-Contact Streamers of our Majors: Attempt to form a mutually beneficial partnership between active streamers of our events. Will help boost visibility and cross-contamination of viewers if the streamers themselves are advertising the other events on the SG Launch Party (SGTour is so easy to just type...). Could also have them play community content on their streams during SG, things like Hype Highlights or player interviews or whatever, details can get hashed later.

-Attempt partnership with Autumn: Mike said he would be doing this, so I don't know if asking them again would be a thing to do, but their participation is something I don't think any of us would not want.

After CEOtaku Goals:

Spoiler

-Look into awards/community gifts: This needs to be hashed out. A lot of different things could be done. Flying players out is nice, and organizing more of those kumite's and crowdfunding things would be the move for that. Anything else would need to come out of our pockets, so being mindful of how many of what we're getting for who is important.

-Three 80+ entry events: We've slimmed back, revved up, and we're ready to go. If we run this smoothly, managing to score 80+ entrants three times this year should be very doable.

-International growth: This year, presence outside of the US may be difficult. However, we should be able to have 5 total countries represented for SG Series 2017-2018. Start building connections with international communities, scout events that are good to gather at, befriend TO's, find out what they need to join the SG Series.

-Highlight Smaller Locals: This would best be done in a video, probably. Find the smaller communities of people all around the country and feature them in a video on the SG Series youtube channel. Give them some exposure, make friends, and hopefully give people a bigger reason in that scene to play by featuring their players.

As far as Management, I would pick from people I know to be good at what they do from KPB and Skullheart. While it would seem biased, given my relationship with her, I would put Sharpie in charge of organization. If anyone would have an issue with this, I can call on @IAmAphroDynamek or the CEO of KPB to attest to her capabilities as an organizer. Other community members would of course have to volunteer, but there are obviously people I would like to join (even outside of KPB). I don't want to name anyone specifically because I haven't asked anyone and don't want them to have to publicly decline if they don't want to. But, if your name rhymes with Molfinh, MenInBlack, Mazmer, or MaiMennedy, I may or may not be DMing you at some point.

Promotion, like I said, I would be looking to orchestrate between streamers and TO's. Outside of that, video content along with SRK coverage makes a consistent presence throughout the year. With Autumn backing this is pumped up of course, but that's what it currently seems like it should be.

I didn't really expect myself to volunteer for this. I thought it'd be fine to sit back and just... suggest how other people should run it. Or hope that just willing it to happen would make it so. It's getting fairly clear that that won't solve the problem. So, if I'm managing this thing, I'll be trying my best to get us the best 2017 we can get, and ensure our future in the spotlight. Though... I guess I'll be doing that anyway either way.

 

[POS Industries]

(Also, pleeaaaaaaaase leave logo and other mockups to artists? That stuff isn't necessary to have until the rest of the decisions are already made AND arrangements are in place, and having giant images makes the thread harder to read, etc.)[/spoiler]

I'm not going to promise anything just yet, but it's a given that EightySixed would be more than happy to involved in whatever capacity we can, and art stuff is definitely under that umbrella. The community should definitely focus on the infrastructure of all this and we'll see what we can come up with as far as the tertiary aesthetic stuff, if not more.

 

[dapurplesharpie]

Apparently now I'm working on this project?

...okay.

 

[Zidiane]

I'm not going to promise anything just yet, but it's a given that EightySixed would be more than happy to involved in whatever capacity we can, and art stuff is definitely under that umbrella. The community should definitely focus on the infrastructure of all this and we'll see what we can come up with as far as the tertiary aesthetic stuff, if not more.

An artist contacted me about wanting to provide art. Would she be able to work with eightysixed on that while we're hashing out the rest of it here?

 

[thehadou]

... so I guess we do need people in charge? We can't just put out open letters and have it turn out fine? I really wanted it to be like that. I like the thought of the community collectively saying a thing and having people listening.

Here's the thing, if everything is put out via open letter and anyone/everyone can put out an open letter, how do TOs or other organizers differentiate whats popular consensus vs perceived or fabricated consensus? This already happened once just from Kai's sketch poster being viewed as part of a definitive announcement. Which, once out there, created uproar here for both personal and structural reasons.

Some of the parties you'll want to work with might not be posters here, some of the community you want to attract might not be Skullheart members, and those kinds of less involved but super important people need something structured to look for and rally behind. Having a thing with some level of hierarchy means that when people have questions, concerns, or problems there are aligned people to look to. Gotta have that when key items (sponsored bonuses, trophies, flights, marketing partners, art, etc) get into the mix. Its why send-person-to-X-event campaigns always have a point person or even something as fractured as the Occupy movement have a marginally sanctioned social media team.

This doesn't mean that it isn't a community vehicle or that anyone and everyone who wants to be involved wouldn't be (cause they should be). It just means something condensing the community chorus into a somewhere-checkably-approved voice exists.

Also, as always, this is not 2-cents you have to work with. I'm just another voice here. Not an authority.

 

[clawmaster]

Here's the thing, if everything is put out via open letter and anyone/everyone can put out an open letter, how do TOs or other organizers differentiate whats popular consensus vs perceived or fabricated consensus? This already happened once just from Kai's sketch poster being viewed as part of a definitive announcement. Which, once out there, created uproar here for both personal and structural reasons.

Some of the parties you'll want to work with might not be posters here, some of the community you want to attract might not be Skullheart members, and those kinds of less involved but super important people need something structured to look for and rally behind. Having a thing with some level of hierarchy means that when people have questions, concerns, or problems there are aligned people to look to. Gotta have that when key items (sponsored bonuses, trophies, flights, marketing partners, art, etc) get into the mix. Its why send-person-to-X-event campaigns always have a point person or even something as fractured as the Occupy movement have a marginally sanctioned social media team.

This doesn't mean that it isn't a community vehicle or that anyone and everyone who wants to be involved wouldn't be (cause they should be). It just means something condensing the community chorus into a somewhere-checkably-approved voice exists.

Also, as always, this is not 2-cents you have to work with. I'm just another voice here. Not an authority.

Agreed. I think we are all missing the point. Sure we can talk about the prizes, and what players we can bring in, but we defiantly should focus on developing a concrete plan on how to go about this idea. I suggest we start from this post on, on one thing at a time. I suggest we start as @Mike_Z suggested with the tournaments. We know CEOtaku, GUTS, and CB for sure has our sights for where players would want to go and attend. NWM is another tournament that was talked about before, to where a lot of the SG players love to go. So we should start from there. I know everyone is really excited to contribute into this thread, and idea, but we must all focus on the main course of action to get to that point.

with that said, @Zidiane if you want to take control of this ship, go for it. Oh captain, my captain.

 

[Kai]

I agree on all counts. Discussions alone do not make things happen. Take ownership of it, John. Work hard for the next 9 months, put in effort you can be proud of, and I'm confident you can produce positive results.

 

[gluemchen]

All hail @Zidiane

 

[Zidiane]

Edit: I'm the captain now.

 

[Mike_Z]

(^.^)7

 

[dapurplesharpie]

Edit: man, I still don't know what I'm supposed to be doing

 

[Zidiane]

Edit: man, I still don't know what I'm supposed to be doing

Yo chill. You're the First Mate.

Edit: you are Nami from One Piece. You're the navigator.

 

[Kai]

I still don't know what I'm supposed to be doing

Yo chill.

Spoiler

 

[POS Industries]

An artist contacted me about wanting to provide art. Would she be able to work with eightysixed on that while we're hashing out the rest of it here?

It's possible. I need to go to the office tomorrow and talk to them about it along with some other ideas that y'all might like if we go forward with them, but if things are good then I'll let you know who to refer them to.

 

[Ninja]

Edit: I'm the captain now.

Spoiler

you are Nami from One Piece. You're the navigator.

aw shit... you had to bring one piece into this. Man... can I atleast be Sanji?

 

[keninblack]

Willing to help however I can, just let me know if you need anything <3

 

[Hawt Salsa]

Same. Not EC like all you guys, but anything i can do for this community is something I want to do :)

 

[Zidiane]

So, I've been going over a lot and trying to hammer out specific details. I've been getting a better idea of where I want to try to bring this thing. I'll post about those things when stuff is more concrete, but I did want to ask a question. I'm tagging @mcpeanuts because this seems more relevant to him than most.

Mike posted earlier an example of a kind of letter we could bring to TO's, requesting minimum accommodations for their tournaments to be included in the SG Series lineup. If we have a minimum standard of quality for these events that we express to TO's very clearly, and an agreement is struck based on that standard, would we consider going to things outside of our selected range of events? Or go to an event we've decided not to focus on, like NEC? If we have more control over the quality standard we're provided, it seems like it won't matter too much which ones they are that we pick as long as the TO agrees. It could free up our schedule to space events out a little more for the 2017-2018 Series.

This won't be important for a while, but I just want to ask what people think before I forget about it.

 

[mcpeanuts]

So, I've been going over a lot and trying to hammer out specific details. I've been getting a better idea of where I want to try to bring this thing. I'll post about those things when stuff is more concrete, but I did want to ask a question. I'm tagging @mcpeanuts because this seems more relevant to him than most.

Mike posted earlier an example of a kind of letter we could bring to TO's, requesting minimum accommodations for their tournaments to be included in the SG Series lineup. If we have a minimum standard of quality for these events that we express to TO's very clearly, and an agreement is struck based on that standard, would we consider going to things outside of our selected range of events? Or go to an event we've decided not to focus on, like NEC? If we have more control over the quality standard we're provided, it seems like it won't matter too much which ones they are that we pick as long as the TO agrees. It could free up our schedule to space events out a little more for the 2017-2018 Series.

This won't be important for a while, but I just want to ask what people think before I forget about it.

I thought the issue was that people didn't have the money. That's why we were limiting ourselves to 5 tournaments.

 

[Zidiane]

I thought the issue was that people didn't have the money. That's why we were limiting ourselves to 5 tournaments.

There wouldn't be more than 5 events, but I'm more asking about afterwards, if this is a success, would people be open to events that haven't been considered as part of the next lineup (which will probably still be 5 events).

 

[mcpeanuts]

There wouldn't be more than 5 events, but I'm more asking about afterwards, if this is a success, would people be open to events that haven't been considered as part of the next lineup (which will probably still be 5 events).

I would assume no unless there's a big change in the financial situation for most players within the next year.

 

[GrunkleBarlowe]

Let's just keep the five we have? Variety in terms of location, pretty well spaced apart, and people are already budgeting for them.

 

[Zidiane]

I wasn't talking about raising the number of events. I also do not agree that we have our events properly spaced out. CEOtaku is a month and a half before GUTS4, and NWM is less than one month prior to CB (at least, this year's was). Because of how close they are there are people who can't make both CEOtaku and GUTS, that's the only reason I'm talking about spacing events out further apart.

I just wanted to pose the question early. We have the whole next year to think about the subsequent year of events. In that subsequent year, are we restricted to the events we've already chosen, or if it becomes desirable can we swap out old events for new ones? If GUTS5 didn't happen next year, would we only have four events? Would we go to NEC with this Series plan we have, or would we pick an event not many of us have been to?

 

[mcpeanuts]

I see. Well, I can't really think of any tournaments that have been good to Skullgirls that we haven't already discussed. I guess Toryuken was fine the one year I went, but it's the same month as Combo Breaker so that's probably never happening.

It's highly likely GUTS will be returning in 2017, by the way. I know people are concerned about that because GUTS skipped 2015, but that was because GU itself moved to a new location and it wasn't practical to run a major the same year. I don't think it's realistic to worry about GUTS5 not happening.

 

[GrunkleBarlowe]

I think we could wait and see what kind of attention this run of events brings us.

NWM is the only event that really feels out of place to me but there isn't much we can do about that especially since it's the only west coast major that's any good. GUTS and CEOtaku are close together but I'm not sure how much that'll affect attendance for local people? I think those two events are going to be a bit smaller and that's fine.

I would really, REALLY like to see about a new major in Cali being organized but that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

 

[Zidiane]

Sorry, peanuts, didn't mean to imply GUTS wasn't coming back. I just meant that anything could happen in the next year that makes any of the events disappear or unattendable somehow, I just picked GUTS because we're going to that over NEC.

 

[dapurplesharpie]

I don't think it's realistic to worry about GUTS5 not happening.

I guess I'm more concerned about people showing up since CEO is a month prior and it seems like more people are opting to go to CEO instead of GUTS.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[mcpeanuts]

Sorry, peanuts, didn't mean to imply GUTS wasn't coming back. I just meant that anything could happen in the next year that makes any of the events disappear or unattendable somehow, I just picked GUTS because we're going to that over NEC.

No, that's fine. I'm glad you said it because it's a legit concern that I know a lot of people have, and it gives me an excuse to let everyone know that it's not something they need to worry about.

I guess I'm more concerned about people showing up since CEO is a month prior and it seems like more people are opting to go to CEO instead of GUTS.

You mean CEOtaku, right? CEO already happened back in June. I guess this is a concern but we'll see how it goes. There is the fact that aside from Skullgirls they run different games. CEOtaku is anime focused and will be the biggest tournament of the year for a lot of games that don't normally get huge numbers, so people whose secondary game is one of those will probably prefer CEOtaku. GUTS is a more traditional tournament that's running SFV/Marvel/etc so people who play one of those games might opt for GUTS.

 

[dapurplesharpie]

You mean CEOtaku, right?

Yeah. That's what I meant. Sorry.

 

[zarkingphoton]

I can already see the benefits of this. I already get asked by people I talk to online if Skulgirls is going to roll up for [insert tournament]. Not being one to sit at the cool kids' table, I usually just do a quick perusal of Skullheart. This not only makes it easy to determine which events contain a concerted effort, but the news is really getting around. I think the selection of events is just right, too.